Tag: Logan

Teamsters Strike Against Coca-Cola

Workers are picketing in St. Albans, Bluefield, Logan, Parkersburg and Clarksburg and are supported by other Teamsters locals who have set up picket lines across the state.

Members of the Teamsters Local 175 are striking against Coca-Cola over the company’s alleged refusal to compromise. 

Workers are picketing in St. Albans, Bluefield, Logan, Parkersburg and Clarksburg and are supported by other Teamsters locals who have set up picket lines across the state.

Teamsters Local 175 President Ken Hall said the company won’t compromise on several grievance issues and employees have been without a contract for more than a week. 

He accuses Coca-Cola of backtracking on signed agreements, including one over health insurance.

“After signing off on that language within an hour, their attorney called and said, ‘We can’t agree to that now. We have a person in our Charlotte office who doesn’t agree,’” Hall said. “We’d negotiated for over a week, it’s not like someone tricked them, they’re represented by council.”

Hall said Coca-Cola is trying to take away work from their members. 

Last month workers rejected a contract offer after the company reached an agreement with the gas station chain Sheetz to use its warehouses and employees to transport products to their convenience stores. 

“They want to direct ship their product from one of their bottling stores in somewhere like Roanoke, Virginia or Charlotte, North Carolina,” Hall said. “They want to direct ship it to a warehouse that’s owned by Sheetz and eliminate our drivers who go there, check to see what their order is, put their drinks on the shelves and merchandise it. They want to eliminate what they’re paying our drivers which will eventually result in layoffs. It’s bizarre.” 

Hall said his experience with Coca-Cola’s competitor, Pepsi, is just the opposite. 

“They don’t want to do that and they’re not doing that,” Hall said. “And they sell more drinks in West Virginia, so I think they have some idea of how to negotiate.”

Hall explained that the last time workers went on strike against Coca-Cola the volume of lost sales was high enough that two years later the company was still struggling to recover its numbers.

“This company’s mentality is unbelievable,” Hall said. “And part of that is driven, I think, that prior to them acquiring the West Virginia operation in the late 80s, they had maybe 100 unionized employees out of 4,000 and that was in Alabama. So they’re not accustomed to working with unions, frankly they despise unions, so every so often they decide, ‘We’re just going to take you on.’ So far they have not been very successful at it.”

Coca-Cola declined a request for an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting but in a statement said the company is disappointed the union initiated a strike.

“We’re disappointed the union decided to take our teammates out on strike but remain committed to working with them on an equitable resolution. We have a solid plan in place to continue serving our customers.”

November 15, 2010: Aracoma Hotel in Logan Badly Damaged by Fire

On November 15, 2010, the Aracoma Hotel in Logan was badly damaged by fire, leading to its demolition several months later.

Named for the Indian princess Aracoma, the daughter of Chief Cornstalk, the landmark hotel experienced many brushes with history. Built in 1917 for $50,000 by Syrian immigrant Harvey Ghiz, the hotel was the largest downtown building erected after Logan’s great fire of 1912. During construction, workers unearthed roughly a square-block field of bones and relics that had once been an Indian burial site.

The original four-story building fronted on Coal Street with an elaborate arched facade. It contained 94 rooms, most with private shower baths. It also boasted electric elevators and fine woodwork.

In 1921, during the West Virginia Mine Wars, local women set up an emergency food station in the Aracoma’s lobby to supply meals and supplies to the troops, police, and other antiunion forces quartered in Logan. Over the years, the hotel hosted such notables as evangelist Billy Sunday and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. And in 1960, John F. Kennedy used the Aracoma as his headquarters while campaigning for president in the region.

November 11, 1918: World War I Ends

On November 11, 1918, World War I ended after more than four years of brutal fighting. Nearly 39 million soldiers had been killed, wounded, or listed as missing. American soldiers arrived on the scene only during the last year-and-a-half of the war. Still, some 116,000 died in the conflict.

About 58,000 West Virginians served in the war. Of these, more than 1,100 were killed in action, and nearly 700 died in training. Many others died from influenza or other diseases.

On the home front, patriotic West Virginians rationed food and coal, volunteered as Red Cross personnel, and sold Liberty Bonds. In addition, the U.S. government built an ordnance center at South Charleston and a gunpowder plant at Nitro. Neither facility, however, was completed before the war ended.

Of the more than two million Americans who served in World War I, the last-surviving veteran was Frank Buckles, who died at Charles Town in 2011 at the age of 110. Today, memorials to the war can be seen in Welch, Kimball, Logan, Martinsburg, Huntington, and Charleston, with individual statues and plaques in many other towns.

January 31, 1922: Actress Joanne Dru Born in Logan

Movie and television actress Joanne Dru was born in Logan on January 31, 1922. Originally named Joan Lacock, her father was a pharmacist in Logan.

The family moved to Huntington, where Dru’s brother, Ralph Pierre Lacock, was born. He later changed his name to Peter Marshall and was the longtime host of the Hollywood Squares game show.

After their father’s death, the family moved to Wheeling. Dru attended Wheeling High School but, before graduating, relocated to New York, where she worked as a model and cover girl. After marrying singer and actor Dick Haymes in 1941, she moved to Hollywood and appeared in more than 40 movies, including the classic Westerns Red River and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, both starring John Wayne. She also had a standout performance in the film All the King’s Men. As television became more popular, she appeared in a number of series, including Guestward Ho! and Playhouse 90.

After her divorce from Dick Haymes, Dru married actor-director John Ireland and later C. V. Wood, who developed Disneyland. Joanne Dru died in Los Angeles in 1996 at age 74.

November 15, 2010: Aracoma Hotel in Logan Badly Damaged by Fire

On November 15, 2010, the Aracoma Hotel in Logan was badly damaged by fire, leading to its demolition several months later.

Named for the Indian princess Aracoma, the daughter of Chief Cornstalk, the landmark hotel experienced many brushes with history. Built in 1917 for $50,000 by Syrian immigrant Harvey Ghiz, the hotel was the largest downtown building erected after Logan’s great fire of 1912. During construction, workers unearthed roughly a square-block field of bones and relics that had once been an Indian burial site.

The original four-story building fronted on Coal Street with an elaborate arched facade. It contained 94 rooms, most with private shower baths. It also boasted electric elevators and fine woodwork.

In 1921, during the West Virginia Mine Wars, local women set up an emergency food station in the Aracoma’s lobby to supply meals and supplies to the troops, police, and other antiunion forces quartered in Logan. Over the years, the hotel hosted such notables as evangelist Billy Sunday and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. And in 1960, John F. Kennedy used the Aracoma as his headquarters while campaigning for president in the region.

November 15, 2010: Aracoma Hotel in Logan Badly Damaged by Fire

On November 15, 2010, the Aracoma Hotel in Logan was badly damaged by fire, leading to its demolition several months later.

Named for the Indian princess Aracoma, the daughter of Chief Cornstalk, the landmark hotel experienced many brushes with history. Built in 1917 for $50,000 by Syrian immigrant Harvey Ghiz, the hotel was the largest downtown building erected after Logan’s great fire of 1912. During construction, workers unearthed roughly a square-block field of bones and relics that had once been an Indian burial site.

The original four-story building fronted on Coal Street with an elaborate arched facade. It contained 94 rooms, most with private shower baths. It also boasted electric elevators and fine woodwork.

In 1921, during the West Virginia Mine Wars, local women set up an emergency food station in the Aracoma’s lobby to supply meals and supplies to the troops, police, and other antiunion forces quartered in Logan. Over the years, the hotel hosted such notables as evangelist Billy Sunday and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. And in 1960, John F. Kennedy used the Aracoma as his headquarters while campaigning for president in the region.

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